Economy

Believe it or not, the UK is currently experiencing ‘full-employment.’  That is, while 4.7 percent of working age people are officially unemployed, most are what economists used to call ‘frictional’ – they are moving between jobs or moving between work and education. At face value, this is good news.  Indeed, …

Within any country’s economy are several critical industries that are considered “strategic.”  In 19th century Britain, for example, coal, steel and shipbuilding were deemed to be essential.  Even today, the ability to construct military vessels is, at least to a limited extent, considered strategic.  Steel has a less obvious position.  …

The digital economy has largely been welcomed as a “disruptive force,” obliging old fashioned businesses to compete for custom with new lean internet companies like Uber and Google.  But disruptive businesses in banking may not be the positive development intended.  As Leonid Bershidsky at Bloomberg points out: “In a rivalry …

The so-called fourth industrial revolution (aka the gig economy) was supposed to result in a shiny new future in which a new class of youthful digital entrepreneurs generated prosperous jobs for all.  In reality, the digital economy created a climate of fear and insecurity at the bottom of the British labour …

The scale of economic dishonesty in the wake of the Brexit result last year takes “fake news” to stratospheric levels.  In this, both sides of the Brexit argument are equally culpable.  The slightest hint of economic bad news is pounced upon by the “Remoaners” as proof that the UK economy …

Perhaps the most despicable thing about climate change denial is that the science behind the greenhouse effect is long established.  As I noted in my book – The Consciousness of Sheep: “French mathematician and physicist, Joseph Fourier, first discovered the ‘greenhouse effect’ in 1824, when he discovered that gases such …

Across the Western world, centrist political parties and their supporters are like punch-drunk boxers, reeling from a series of near-knockout blows.  First there was the British (i.e. English and Welsh) decision to leave the European Union.  Then came the ‘impossible’ election of President Donald Trump.  Then there was the less …

Technological prowess has ushered in a new century of energy independence.  Techniques for recovering the oil found in shale deposits and bitumen sands, for drilling in ultra-deep water and for recovering Arctic oil have allowed the Western states to break free from our dependency on the Middle East and Russia …

Michael Gove’s comment that “we’ve had enough of experts” has come to symbolise everything that was wrong with the Brexit referendum result: A bunch of knuckle dragging, fact-denying, racist proletarians who could barely muster a C grade GCSE between them – swayed by a cynical pack of lies from the …

Perhaps because it is hard to link the story to Brexit, the news that shampoo sales fell by £23 million in the past year will have been missed by most readers.  The news may, however, by far more important that a great deal of the Brexit-linked winging that has passed …